November 16, 2010

After an opening statement from House Ethics Adjudicatory Subcommittee Chair Zoe Lofgren, Rangel rambled on for about 10 minutes.

Lofgren noted that Rangel “was sitting by himself at the table” and assumed he was representing himself. And indeed he was. After paying his former legal team $2 million, he had a fool for a client.

Acting on his own counsel, Rangel said he wanted to talk with a lawyer:

I object to the proceedings, and I, with all due respect, since I don’t have counsel to advise me, I’m going to have to excuse myself from these proceedings.

And with that, he walked out.

Rangel’s request for a delay was denied.

After a three-hour closed session, the panel announced a unanimous decision to deem the charges “uncontested” and ended the trial phase.

Meanwhile, Rangel is taking his case to the court of public opinion. In a statement, Rangel said:

I am very disappointed that the Ethics Subcommittee has chosen to proceed with the hearing knowing that I am without counsel. They have decided to continue the hearing on an 80-page document that I received just seven days ago by the Subcommittee staff -which neither I nor others have ever seen before in an ethics inquiry. When I asked what rule this motion was made under and how it was used. I was told nothing. How was I supposed to deal with this when I received it just days before the hearing without an attorney by my side?

[…]

I hope that my colleagues in Congress, friends, constituents and anyone paying attention will consider my statement and how the Committee has been unfair to me. They can do what they will with me because they have the power and I have no real chance of fighting back.

October 19, 2010

Democrats are in a panic and are looking to their most loyal voting bloc, African Americans, to beat back the Republican wave. They are not too proud to beg and plead for black voters’ sympathy even though some have casts votes that were not in the interest of African Americans.

I’m a little amused by this. Despite representing large numbers of black people -- an average of 25.4 percent -- these lawmakers have consistently voted against President Obama’s major initiatives. With the sole exception of Rep. Tom Perriello, each has opposed -- or actively disparaged -- policies supported by a large majority of African American voters. As far as their immediate self-interest is concerned, these voters have no real reason to support their incumbent representatives.

[…]

As a matter of long-term politics, though, I worry about this categorical support for Democratic candidates; the longer Democrats don’t have to worry about losing African American voters, the longer Democratic representatives can take advantage of their black support. Unfortunately, there’s not much of an alternative. Republicans don’t need black votes to win, and as such, have no real stake in advancing African American interests. The only conceivable strategy is for black voters to sit out an election, but that’s just as likely to inspire enmity as it is to force engagement with their interests. African American voters are in a tough spot, to say the least.

As a longtime advocate for African Americans getting a fair return for the investment of their political capital, I am not amused that black voters and their leaders are in the same old trick bag.

September 24, 2010

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found President Barack Obama’s job approval is at an all-time low. Only 42 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s job performance; 56 percent “think the president has fallen short of their expectations.”

Expectations are a terrible thing to waste.

At today’s Christian Science Monitor breakfast, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said Obama played the expectations game and lost.

In the push for his economic plan, Obama administration officials said that if Congress passed the stimulus package, unemployment would stay below eight percent.

The unemployment rate has hovered around 10 percent since February 2009.

While noting the economy “hasn’t done well enough,” Frank observed:

The public doesn’t grade on a curve. The public grades on reality, particularly when expectations have been raised.

This legislation will provide new enforcement tools for protecting our citizens and will help our state fight the ongoing problems created by illegal immigration. Florida will not be a sanctuary state for illegal aliens.

The legislation would require “aliens to carry immigration documentation or face a misdemeanor carrying a sentence of up to 20 days in jail for the first offense. The proposal also makes it a misdemeanor for an illegal alien not authorized to work to seek employment in the state of Florida.”

As I have repeatedly stated, the independent, bipartisan Ethics Committee is the proper arena for ethics matters to be discussed. The process is moving forward in a way that will ensure that the highest ethical standards are upheld in the House of Representatives.

The Committee alleges that Waters’ and her chief of staff’s involvement with OneUnited Bank violated conflict of interest rules. Chief of Staff Mikael Moore is also her grandson.

Waters wants the Committee to hold a public trial so that she can “show [her] constituents and the American public that the accusations against [her] are frivolous and unfounded.”

Waters wants the trial to be held before Election Day, which is 83 days away.

During an appearance on the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.’s radio show, “Keep Hope Alive,” Waters said she wants an opportunity to lay out the facts:

I’m not going to be anybody’s sacrificial lamb…I’m supposed to be scared. Negative, positive, it doesn’t matter to me…The press can say what it wants to say. I have the facts. In a public hearing, I will bring out the facts and I will win.

Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, believes the charges against Waters are designed to “constrain advocacy for African American interests”:

The Democrats don’t benefit from this this close to the election. It puts them on the defensive. Even if you argue that it seems that the ethics investigation process is working, the Democrats having to defend the process at this time doesn’t help the party. It’s hurtful because it gives the Republicans a chance to say, “See the Democrats have all those problems over there.” I don’t know if they’ll do that because they’re a lot of Republicans that have been investigated. But there’s nothing positive in this for the Democrats.

But Waters refuses to be a poster child for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s promise to “drain the swamp.”

Waters vowed:

Before that happens to me, I’ll bring down the whole ecological system.